American gun owners are still not getting the message that guns and children do not mix. In the last week, at least four children were injured by finding loaded guns – guns which legally should never have been left lying around where children were able to get them.
Police in Utah where a 9 year-old was shot in the head after finding a grandparent’s weapon reinforced that all guns in a home should be unloaded, in a safe, and that guns and ammo must be stored separately.
They said “If you don’t have a safe then you can get what’s called a trigger lock that you put a lock on the trigger of the gun,” said Crapse. “You can buy those when you buy the gun, they are cheap. Or most police departments, you can go to the police department and get those trigger locks. We give them away for free.”
The words don’t seem to get through, so here is a picture of 4 year-old Tripp Shaw from Indiana and his parents.
His dad was wrestling with Tripp when his gun went off, killing him. You won’t ever be seeing a picture of Tripp at age 5.
He’ll never grow up to be a doctor, a football hero, an artist.
The parents will live with this the rest of their lives. Please, if you must have a gun, get a lock for it, keep it unloaded, and keep it in a place children won’t be near it. Better yet, just don’t have a lethal weapon in the same home as children. Don’t let your child, your friend’s child be the next Tripp Shaw.
Please share this post; it might well stop a tragedy.